Princess Kate Spotted Amid Health Scare and Photo Editing Controversy

Princess Catherine of Wales was photographed on Monday afternoon leaving Windsor Castle, making a show of being out and about just hours after a public apology for publishing a family snap on Mother’s Day that had been photoshopped.

Several UK newspapers published a picture alleging to show Princess Kate taken on Monday afternoon, showing her sitting beside her husband the Prine of Wales, William, as he travelled from Royal residence Windsor Castle to the Commonwealth Day Service at Westminster Abbey. The Princess did not travel to the event, and is reported by the Daily Mail to have been heading in a shared journey to a “private appointment”.

The Princess’s face was not shown in the image published by the newspapers. It is only the second time since Christmas that Princess Kate is believed to have been seen in public, having been earlier photographed in a car with her mother a week ago.

Catherine was admitted to hospital in January for abdominal surgery. While the exact nature of the operation was not revealed by the Palace at the time of the announcement, it was declared she would not return to public duties until after Easter, suggesting the surgery was reasonably serious. Royal spokesmen have made periodic statements about the Princess “doing well” after the surgery, but information has otherwise been sparse.

The bizarre episode of the Mother’s Day photograph came as Royal social media accounts published a picture of the Princess with her three children wishing the world a happy day. But internet sleuths soon noticed the image had giveaways that it had been manipulated and a series of news agencies announced they were pulling the image over edit concerns.

Catherine later apologised for the image, claiming “Like many amateur photographers, I do occasionally experiment with editing. I wanted to express my apologies for any confusion the family photograph we shared yesterday caused. I hope everyone celebrating had a very happy Mother’s Day.” Royal sources had insisted the edits had been minor, but Sky News cited metadata from the image which suggested it had been taken on professional equipment and edited on Photoshop at least twice, again inviting further speculation over why an image so heavily doctored might have been published.